Will NATO and Turkey become Actively Involved in Syria War? - Interview

By: Rick Rozoff and John Robles

Source: Global Research:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32279

As the Syrian crisis escalates, Turkey, Syria and Poland are all under NATO's constraint these days. Was a bilateral arrangement of Poland with the US a mistake? Should Poland develop its own missiles interception system integrated into or with NATO?

Interview with Mr. Rick Rozoff, manager of Stop NATO website .

Can you give our listeners an update on what’s going on with NATO?

NATO’s been keeping a very low profile for several weeks. Their website, for example, has not updated for at least three weeks, perhaps a month. I’m not sure what to attribute that to. It may be a conscious decision to keep a low profile as the Syrian crisis escalates. So that should they become involved - a likely scenario, of course, is in alleged defense of Turkey - if border skirmishes develop that they will not have tipped their hand or signaled what they want to do...In terms of a new commander at NATO’s Norfolk command, which is called Allied Command Transformation, it was the first major NATO headquarters – and the only one to date – in the United States...

You talked about defending Turkey. Now Turkey recently made some statements regarding the fact that they’re against a military intervention in Syria.

I believe Turkish officials said that to Russian officials. And I would imagine that’s what Ankara thinks Moscow wants to hear. We should recall that last week Turkey moved 25 tanks as well as missile batteries and armored personnel carriers along with troops to within two kilometers of the Syrian border, allegedly engaging in a military exercise aimed at the Kurdistan Workers' Party, but in fact claiming that a political party on the other side of the border, in Syria, is linked with the Kurdistan Workers' Party and intimating if not stating quite openly that Turkey reserves the right to intervene militarily against supporters of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, inside Syria.

So a scenario could come into existence whereby Turkey stages a provocation. You probably saw today's news, John, that Turkey is claiming they’ve killed something like 117 Kurdistan Workers Party fighters in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border. So things are heating up there. And if it's the intent, not only of Turkey, but if it's the intent of the West as a whole to stage a direct military intervention into Syria, then the most likely pretext for doing so would be a clash between Turkish and Syrian forces near the border, on either side of the border, and then Turkey once again returning to NATO and asking for assistance from its fellow NATO members.

Do you have any information on what’s going on in Aleppo? Several high officials, I believe, were captured when the Syrian Army took Aleppo back under its control.

An English-language Iranian website mentioned that a Turkish general had been captured by Syrian forces in Aleppo. And I personally spoke with a Syrian émigré whose brother is in pretty influential circles in Damascus and he mentioned that six or seven foreign officers were captured in Aleppo within the last 24-48 hours. And he mentioned them being not only Turkish, but Arabic-speaking, presumably Saudi, Qatari or other Persian Gulf Arab States. This shouldn’t surprise us that, trying to throw together an organized insurgency, funded certainly and based abroad, would also entail having probably special operations officers, maybe of fairly high rank, from Turkey and from Arab Gulf states involved in the fighting in Aleppo and earlier in Damascus.

You’re saying six or seven generals were captured in Aleppo.

The term that was used in my conversation was generals, but I think we're probably safe in assuming they were officers of some ranking, perhaps not generals.

They were commanding officers, but were they from different countries?

That’s correct.

Have you heard anything about training camps that have been set up on borders of Syria?

That’s an established fact. That Saudi Arabia supplied the funding for a training camp for fighters. Roughly, I believe, 40 kilometers from the Syrian border, if I'm not mistaken, inside Turkey. But this has been going on for quite a while. As long ago as, say, last November or October as I recollect even the Daily Telegraph in Britain was quoting an official of so-called Free Syrian Army stating there were 15,000 fighters – he didn’t specify their nationality, incidentally - but 15,000 fighters inside Turkey receiving material support and training. That’s probably a hyperbolical figure. He was probably exaggerating for propaganda purposes. But it’s an indication this has been going on for some time. The Saudis funding the creation of a special training camp inside Turkey that close to the Syrian border is an escalation of the conflict.

Can you tell us about the problems that NATO has had supplying the troops in Afghanistan?

For five days now what was to be the resumption of NATO supplies from Pakistan into Afghanistan has been held up, supposedly because of security concerns, as I understand it, but as recently as yesterday two NATO vehicles were torched in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. So what we're seeing, in fact, is a resumption of attempted supplying of NATO forces in Afghanistan and we're seeing exactly the same situation that obtained at the time they were occurring before the attack on the Pakistani border outpost in Salala last November that killed 25 Pakistani troops. What we’re seeing is that NATO supply vehicles are being attacked and set afire.

What can you say about Polish President’s announcement a couple of days ago? He said that it had been a mistake to agree with NATO on building ABM infrastructure in Poland.

That is a fascinating question. I’ve been trying to make sense of that since the story broke. I’m not quite sure if he was alluding to the earlier George W. Bush administration plan to put Ground-based Midcourse, longer-range, interceptor missiles or if it’s an allusion to what’s called the European Phased Adaptive Approach of the Obama administration, which is planning to put 24 Standard Missile-3, advanced Standard Missile-3, interceptors in Poland by 2018. It’s unclear whether he's talking about the Bush program that's already been superseded or the Obama program that's still in the works. But in any event, the paraphrase of his comments that I’ve read suggested that a bilateral arrangement with the United States was a mistake and that Poland should develop its own missile interception system and integrate it into or with NATO.

He was repeatedly asked who they would be defending themselves against. He refused to answer the question.

Of course he refused to answer because the answer is not one that the United States wants him to provide. That country is Russia. The argument that the original Ground-based Midcourse interceptors were meant to hit Iranian missiles...one has to in one’s imagination conjure up a map of the world and try to imagine, first of all, how Iran would have the capability of launching basically intercontinental ballistic missiles over Poland, presumably over the Arctic Circle to hit the United States. That's an impossibility, fallacious from the very beginning.

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US fabricates lies on Iran to sell arms to Persian Gulf states: US Daily

A US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf (file photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/09/255348/us-fabricates-iran-threat-to-sell-arms/

The United States uses the pretext of the ‘Iran threat’ to sell massive amounts of arms to Persian Gulf kingdoms in a failed effort to establish a united alliance among the dictatorships in the oil-rich region.

The US and its Arab allies in the Persian Gulf are attempting to knit together a “missile shield” system through billions of dollars worth of American arms purchases by the US-backed Persian Gulf states in a supposed bid to bring added pressure on the Islamic Republic besides the US-led sanctions scheme, the New York Times reports on Thursday.

That would include, according to the report, the deployment of radars to boost the range of early warning coverage across the Persian Gulf, as well as launching command, control and communications systems that could exchange that information with missile interceptors whose triggers are controlled by individual countries.

To meet the objective, Pentagon announced late last year the sale of two advanced missile defense radars to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In addition, a similar high-resolution, X-band missile defense radar was sold to Qatar earlier this year.

Moreover, three weeks ago, the US Defense Department revealed the newest addition to its Persian Gulf missile system, notifying the US Congress of a plan to sell Kuwait $4.2 billion worth of weaponry that would include 60 Patriot Advanced Capability missiles, 20 launching pads and 4 radars. All this would come in addition to Kuwait’s existing arsenal of 350 Patriot missiles purchased between 2007 and 2010.

Citing Pentagon documents, the report also reveals that the UAE has purchased over $12 billion worth of missile systems in the past four years.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, notorious for its persistent purchase of massive weapon systems from the US and Europe, has also acquired a significant arsenal of Patriot systems, the most recent being $1.7 billion worth of upgrades last year.

Despite the purchase of such massive amounts of weapon systems, the report says, it is the US military forces that provide a core capability for ballistic missile systems in the Persian Gulf.

Yet, the US is facing major technological and political challenges in establishing what it boasts as being an “integrated regional missile defense system.”

Technologically, they admit, no missile defense system can promise 100 percent effectiveness. Additionally, the Americans argue, Iran is increasing both the type and number of its own missiles in the field.

Political challenges for the Americans, says the report, stem from historic rivalries that prompt its Persian Gulf allies to enhance their respective security through bilateral ties with the US, resisting multilateral security arrangements among themselves.

Iranian officials have repeatedly announced that the Persian Gulf security can best be preserved through a regional collaboration rather than the interference of foreign powers.

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New US report on Iran nukes 'makes issue urgent' –> Zionists desperate

The Islamic republic's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2nd L) and Foreign Minister Ali AKbar Salehi (C) listening to an expert during a tour of Tehran's research reactor centre on February 15, 2012.(AFP Photo / Iranian Presidency)

Source: Russia Today

http://www.rt.com/news/intelligence-report-iran-us-294/

Time is running out to contain the Iranian threat, Israel’s defense minister has warned. Israel is raising the alarm following a new US National Intelligence Estimate which says Tehran has made significant strides towards joining the nuclear club.

­US President Barrack Obama was supposed to have received the latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) weeks ago, but it was delayed in order to include “new and alarming intelligence information” concerning the military nature of Iran’s nuclear program, Haaretz reports. The report’s conclusions are said to converge with those of the Israeli intelligence community.

The NIE reportedly concluded that Iranian efforts to develop a nuclear capability had made considerably greater progress than initially thought.

Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, said he was aware of an unspecified intelligence report circulating in Washington whose conclusions converged with Israel’s own assessment of Iran’s nuclear intentions.

There probably really is such an American intelligence report – I don't know if it is an NIE one – making its way around senior offices (in Washington)," Reuters cites Barak as telling Israel Radio.

"As far as we know it brings the American assessment much closer to ours … it makes the Iranian issue even more urgent and (shows it is) less clear and certain that we will know everything in time about their steady progress toward military nuclear capability," he continued.

When asked about a comment made last week by former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy, who said “if I were an Iranian, I would be very worried in the next twelve weeks,” Barak did not flinch.

"There is some basis to what Halevy said." We will soon have to make some difficult decisions”, he warned.

"All the options are still on the table, and when we say this, we mean it," he continued.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said he was “not going to comment on intelligence matters" after being questioned about the NIE findings.

Israel has been steadfast in its assertion that it will launch a pre-emptive military strike against Iran’s nuclear program. While the United States maintains it will do everything within its power to stop the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon, Washington has urged Israel to give the sanctions regime against Iran more time to take effect.

However, signs that Israel is losing patience became apparent during a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US defense secretary, Leon Panetta, last week.

“Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear program,” he said “This must change, and it must change quickly because time to resolve this issue peacefully is running out.”

“Neither sanctions nor diplomacy has yet had any impact on Iran's nuclear weapons program,” Netanyahu continued.

While Panetta maintained that the US would keep all options on the table, whether the latest NIE report indicates the US is leaning towards a military solution remains to be seen.

The NIE is an “estimative” product compiled by 16 US intelligence agencies intended to inform the US president and other top government officials on the likely course of future events.

A 2007 NIE report on Iran actually derailed Israeli efforts to rally the international community against Tehran after it found the country had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and had made no efforts to bring it back online.

However, the latest NIE findings could mirror a US military source who claimed the US and Israel had already drawn up war plans against Iran.

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Security breakdown in Sinai: Army battles it out with militants

Egyptian security forces stand by their Armoured Personell Carriers ahead of a military operation in the northern Sinai peninsula on August 08, 2012 (AFP Photo / Stringer)

Source: Russia Today

http://www.rt.com/news/sinai-egypt-troop-deployment-274/

Clashes in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula are raging for the second day as the military attempts to combat militants who have taken a foothold in the region since Mubarak’s ouster.

The violence has spurred the largest military deployment in the Sinai Peninsula since 1979. Around 60 tanks, 15 armored personnel carriers, missile batteries and hundreds of soldiers have been sent into the main Northern Sinai town of Al-Arish on Thursday as Egyptian security forces continue to battle with Islamic militants.

The deployment is believed to be the largest since Egypt signed the 1979 Camp David Accords with Israel. As a result of the accords, prior approval is needed before deploying troops on either side of the border, a condition which served to virtually demilitarize the Sinai Peninsula.
Militants ramped up their attacks by attacking five joint military-police checkpoints on Wednesday, prompting the Egyptian military to launch airstrikes from Apache helicopters. Nile TV reported the airstrikes killed at least 20. It was the first time Egypt had deployed its air force in Sinai since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

The military also began sealing off some of the 1,200 illegal tunnels that currently permeate the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip.
The security operation was launched in response to a weekend attack when masked gunmen killed 16 Egyptian border guards before slipping across the border into Israel.

On Thursday Egyptian Intelligence asked Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to hand over three members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades- Hamas paramilitary wing for providing indirect help to militants in Sinai, al-Quds newspaper reports.

Mossad reportedly transferred a list of nine alleged militants connected with Sunday’s attack to Egyptian Intelligence on the same day. The nine suspected militants are said to be affiliated with "The Armies of Monotheism and Jihad in Palestine," reports Haaretz, citing Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, deputy chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau.

Marzook maintained that Mossad was responsible for the attack, backing a claim that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood made earlier this week. The Muslim Brotherhood accused Mossad of “seeking to abort the [Egyptian] revolution since its inception.” Israel maintains Hammas are behind the attacks, an accusation they have denied.

Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, who took the oath of office on June 30 to become the country’s first freely elected president, said those behind Sunday’s “cowardly” attack would pay dearly. Morsi, who is a longstanding member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has not publicly blamed Mossad for the assault.

In a move to assert his authority, on Wednesday Morsi said he had forced his director of General Intelligence Services to resign and had dismissed the governor of Northern Sinai. As the military is constitutionally out of Morsi’s reach, Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Ruling Military Council, fired Hamdy Badeen, the head of Egypt’s Military Police.

Egypt’s armed forces further called on locals and Bedouin tribes in Sinai to help security forces restore order in the region.

The resolute response from both Morsi and the country’s military rulers shows Egypt’s authorities are taking the deteriorating security situation in the region seriously.

Many analysts have attributed the growing Islamist presence in Sinai to the security vacuum resulting from former president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year.

Despite the recent flare-up in the violence, the Egyptian military actually launched “Operation Eagle” in August 2011 to re-establish control in Sinai, a move which saw 2,500 Egyptian troops and 250 armored personnel carriers deployed to Sinai.
With Mubarak’s security apparatus virtually disintegrating in January of last year, a tacit understanding between Israel and Egypt was reached regarding the need to bolster the latter’s military presence in the region, Ahram online reports.

An Egypt-Israel gas pipeline was sabotaged almost a dozen times in under a year, while militants believed to be connected with Islamist groups carried out a series of attacks on Egyptian police stations and checkpoints.

Egypt’s decision to send in reinforcements and intensify its clampdown follows a claim by Israel that Sunday’s brazen attack was a “wake-up call” for Egypt to get a grip on the threat of growing lawlessness on what is, in effect, a bridge between Asia and Africa.

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France deploys troops to Syria-Jordan border

French soldiers board an A310 airliner on August 9, 2012 at the Istres military airbase in southern France to be sent to the Syrian-Jordanian border

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/09/255333/france-sends-troops-to-syria-border/

France has sent troops to the Syrian border with Jordan amid reports of escalating foreign support for the insurgents fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

France said its soldiers have been deployed to 'help refugees' in the border area.

On Monday, the spokeswoman for the so-called Syrian National Council (SNC), Bassma Kodmani, singled out Saudi Arabia and Qatar among the countries providing arms for the insurgents.

Reports also indicate that the notorious US security firm Blackwater is reportedly training al-Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia and Turkey’s border areas to fight in Syria.

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Turkey digging own grave in Syria: Analyst

US President Barack Obama (L) and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (file photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/09/255340/turkey-digging-own-grave-in-syria/

A prominent political analyst says Turkey’s attempts aimed at bringing about the collapse of the Syrian government will rebound on Ankara itself.

“Turkey is making a tactical mistake by supporting terrorism in Syria and supplying them with weapons, military training and human resources,” senior Iranian author and Middle East expert Dr. Ismail Salami wrote in an article on Press TV website.

As a member of the “sabotage axis” against Damascus, Ankara is playing “a very treacherous role in snowballing the Syrian crisis,” he pointed out.

“Turkey will certainly fall into the pitfall it has dug for Syria and the insecurity it envisages for Syria will ultimately recoil against the government itself.”

Turkey’s current hostility against Syria smacks of ingratitude, the Iranian author added, stressing that Damascus has retaliatory means at its disposal.

“In fact, Turkey should be grateful to Syria what it has done for it in the past. It is acknowledged by many pundits that it was Bashar's father, Hafiz Assad, who tailored a compromise between Turkey and the Kurds living in both sides of the country, thereby vaccinating Turkey for years against any attacks on the part of the Kurds,” he pointed out.

“The antagonistic policies of Turkey have left President Bashar Assad with no choice but to grant autonomy to the Kurds in Syria who can foment dilemma for the Ankara government and get Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan into hot water.”

Last month, there were reports that the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PYD), an offshoot of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Syria, had taken over five villages in the north of the country.

Subsequently, Erdogan said such a structure involves “sensitive balances,” which Turkey “cannot just accept.”

"A structure in northern Syria for us means a structure of terror. It is impossible for us to look favorably at such a structure," he said on July 26.

Salami said the US and NATO are “making a selfsame mistake” by throwing their support behind the insurgents inciting terrorism and extremism in Syria.

“They know that a popular uprising in the true sense of the word is not clearly discernible in Syria and that what has been taking place in Syria is a string of militancy and terrorist operations funded by the Saudis and the Qataris and some Western countries who are waiting to reap the benefits of their atrocities in case Bashar Assad’s government collapses. Such a day, if it comes, will open a new chapter of horror in the Middle East with no end in sight,” he added.

“The unfurling reality is that the hostile states and powers antagonizing Bashar Assad are gradually getting caught up in the labyrinthine Orwellian pitfall of their own folly and that they are consciously or unconsciously working in the best interests of the Zionist regime.”

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China’s leaders call for “stable growth” as economy slows

By: John Chan

Source: Global Research

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32278

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has signalled a return to stimulus measures because of sharply decelerating growth and potential social unrest. A CCP Politburo meeting last week called for stable growth to be the top priority.

“The ongoing pace of economic growth is within expectations, but the external environment remains grim and poses difficulties and challenges,” the official Xinhua news agency reported the Politburo discussions as stating.

The Politburo reiterated the need for “prudent” monetary and “proactive” fiscal policies. In other words, Beijing will try to stem a six-quarter slowdown in the world’s second largest economy by boosting bank credit and implementing further stimulus measures.

Underscoring the worsening economic situation, Premier Wen Jiabao told a meeting of business leaders and academics in late July: “We must see with a clear mind that there are difficulties and risks in the current economic situation that can’t be underestimated.”

President Hu Jintao warned that rising unemployment could trigger social unrest. He said China would try to diversify export markets and “expand and stabilise” employment.

The country’s economic growth for the second quarter fell to an annualised 7.6 percent, the slowest rate in three years. However, this official figure is optimistic and the actual situation could be far worse (See: “Economic downturn in China worse than official data”).

The deepening debt crisis in Europe and its broader international impact has reduced demand for China’s exports, which remain the economy’s main driving force. According to China Custom, in the first half of the year, exports to the European Union were $163.06 billion—a decline by 0.8 percent from the corresponding period last year. Exports to Germany declined for four consecutive months, France for three consecutive months and Italy for 10 months.

These figures translated into weakening industrial output. On August 1, the official purchasing managers index (PMI), released by the National Statistics Bureau, dropped to 50.1, its lowest level in eight months. It was just above the 50 mark, which indicates expansion.

Two days later came the publication of the official non-manufacturing index, based on a survey of about 1,200 companies in 27 industries, including telecommunications, transportation and construction. It slipped from 56.7 to 55.6 in July. The service sector makes up 43 percent of China’s economy, compared to 90 percent in the US. The contracting trend indicated that Beijing’s hopes of expanding the domestic market to make up for a slowing manufacturing sector is yielding few results.

The Chinese central bank has cut interest rates twice since June and reduced the reserve requirements for banks three times since November in a bid to encourage lending. The state planning commission has sped up approval of investment projects and boosted railway spending to counter the decelerating growth.

The China Security Journal reported last week that local bank branches were instructed to provide credit support to provincial level government-owned entities in 100 better-off counties, to build roads, railways, natural gas and clean energy projects. Some cities are also increasing stimulus efforts, with Changsha last month announcing an 829 billion yuan ($US130 billion) investment plan.

Relaxing lending to local governments is part of Beijing’s emphasis on “stable growth.” However, cheap credit will worsen the debt crisis facing local governments that are still struggling with huge debts resulting from the last stimulus package. Local government debt was estimated at 10.7 trillion yuan or $1.7 trillion in 2010, but analysts say this is an underestimation.

In a report released on August 3, London-based Capital Economics warned that new local government stimulus measures, from Nanjing and Jiangsu to Changsha and Hunan, could already total 4 trillion yuan, including tax cuts, consumption subsidies and infrastructure investment. The report warned that the 2008-09 stimulus program had “aggravated domestic imbalances in the economy,” leaving investment’s share of gross domestic product close to 50 percent—“one of the highest levels ever recorded for a major economy during peacetime.”

Far from resolving the “imbalance,” the push to stimulate growth with further investment will exacerbate the contradiction. Expanding domestic consumption would involve a significant increase in wages and living standards, which is unacceptable to the corporate elite.

The labour market contracted noticeably in the second quarter, particularly in the more economically developed eastern provinces. A Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security survey found that the number of job applicants in China’s eastern region increased by 132,000 in the second quarter, compared with the first quarter, while job vacancies increased by just 5,000.

While Chinese authorities still insist there is an “over-supply” of jobs, not workers, the survey revealed the opposite. Workers in the coastal provinces continue to lose their jobs as the manufacturing sector is hit by falling export orders.

In Zhejiang province, small and medium sized factories are being forced to scale back their workforces. In the first half of the year, the province’s exports increased by just 5.2 percent—compared to 22.3 percent in the corresponding period last year. In Wenzhou alone, 140 firms have shut and one fifth of industrial enterprises with annual revenues near $3 million yuan have experienced losses.

Zhejiang Wenzhou Apparel Association vice chairman Cai Huantian told the China Security Journal in late July that the business environment was worse than during the 2008 financial crisis. “The number of orders has fallen by around 30 percent from the same period last year, and the average volume of a single order has declined by 70 percent,” he said.

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